Conference unifix::sailing

    
    btw, here's what Ted Turner has to say about steering:
    
        "There are two schools of thought in steering: to keep
    	 a dead helm, not steering at all, and to steer a lot.
    	 The conditions determine which method to use.  In 
    	 relatively steady wind and flat water, a boat has a
    	 tendancy to slow down whenever you move the tiller, so
    	 steering a lot is to be avoided.  In choppy conditions, 
    	 however, you may find that you have to steer more to 
    	 maneuver the boat around the waves.  Similarly, you
    	 may have to steer more in puffy wind conditions."
    
    	"A perennial steering question is whether to drive (sailing
    	 with the sails full) or to pinch (sailing with the sails
    	 luffing).  ... As a rule pinching is better in flat water
    	 as long as the boat is kept on its lines.  As the boat becomes
    	 overpowered, play the sails, easin them out in the puffs.
    	 In these conditions, keeptin the boat on its lines is the 
    	 most important factor in good steering.  Playing the sails
    	 and feathering (pinching) slightly will help do this.  When
    	 the waves are short and choppy, drive the boat to keep up
    	 speed.  In a chop, power in the sails should be well forward.
    	 Steer around the waves so that your bow never goes into a
    	 wave at a right angle."

    
    re: .0 and .1 "avoid them"
    
        one clarification:  I said that sometimes waves over the bow
    cannot be avoided;  that is, cannot be avoided without a major
    course deviation of up to 45 degrees.  Because waves are coming
    from different directions and adding this wave may not form until
    about 5 seconds before it meets the boat, and depending on the
    current angular momentum of the boat this may require a drastic
    helm action to truly avoid...  a cure which I believe is worse
    than the disease.
    
        - Jim

                                                             
    Condition:  Wind and waves aft of beam
    
    Solution:  Tighten your tiller.  If there's any play in the steering,
    you'll know about if fast.  Both wind and waves want to push the
    stern down and spin the bow up into the wind.  There will be varying
    amounts of weather helm peaking as the wave hits the stern.  Anticipate
    that this will happen and fall off slightly before the wave lifts
    the stern.  If fighting the wheel or tiller gets too fatiguing,
    set a larger jib and reef or furl the main.  If you're sailing low
    enough, furl the main and set two jibs wing and wing.  Or if you
    have a spinnaker, set it.  Trim/flatten/reef the main to neutralize
    the helm and minimize rolling.  Keep your head down.  Rig a preventer.
    
    Condition:  Beating with big waves between 12:00 and 2:00.
    
    Solution:  Foot.  Both windward and leeward telltales down.  Draft
    in main and jib forward and as full as the wind velocity will allow.
    Keep the main leech tight and play the traveler to balance the helm.
    Fall off when you see a big wave coming.  Work back to weather in
    the calmer spots.  Tighten the rig before going out in these
    conditions.  The closer the waves are to 12:00, the more you should
    consider being on the other tack.  Even if you overstand your
    destination a bit, it may be worth it to save the abuse on your
    rig.  Pich a calm spot when you have to tack.
    
    Condition:  Beating with waves at 3:00
    
    Solution:  Take dramanine and stay high (on the rhumbline).  Distance
    to weather has to be made on this tack.  When you flop over, the
    waves will be on the nose and it'll be necessary to foot.
    
    - gene

    I tried to start a similar discussion in 1035, but
    there was little interest.  That you've gotten only
    one reply suggests the same.  I'm wondering why.  Perhaps
    it's because you've touched upon one of the more artistic
    elements to handling a sailboat, helmsmanship, and the
    touch therin required to steer a boat masterfully.  I tend
    to think that, especially in this aspect of sailing, you delve 
    into one of the most intimate and subjective interactions between 
    a sailor and his sailboat.  
    
    Certainly, pundits will argue that there are general 
    guidelines to helmsmanship -- some of which Gene touched upon. 
    But beneath the guidelines there is nothing but feel -- the 
    pressure coming through the helm to your hands and the motion of 
    the boat beneath you.  And yes, the metaphor is intentional.  
    That's how attuned a good helmsman becomes to his/her boat.  Within 
    this realm, there are myriads of techniques -- techniques that work 
    for some boats and not others.  And the same goes for helmsmen.
    
    Watching the waves is only a small part of helming
    a boat.  As they say when driving a car, let the vehicle be 
    an extension.  The same goes quadruple for sailboats.
    Yes, watch the waves.  Upwind, steer up the face and down the back
    of waves that will let you; downwind, steer away from a wave as 
    the bow drops and into the wave as it passes beneath and the
    bow comes back up.  But more importantly, feel the boat.  She will 
    tell you when to let her find her own course and when to take 
    control.  TBC...
    
    Thank you Dr. Windbag!
    Next caller please...
    
    ;)

    We find that an added incentive is to have the entire crew yell
    "A--HOLE!" whenever the driver blows it.
    
    Dave

    My basic technique is to head off going up the face of a
    big wave, sail straight on the smaller ones, and always try the
    shoot to windward going down the back face. The longer the waves,
    the easier I find this to do.
    
    This is the opposite of what others have mentioned here. And it
    is opposite to what you would do to maintain a constant apparent
    wind. But my feeling is that in strong winds you've got more
    power than you need - so I don't worry if my apparent wind is
    not optimum. 
    
    Do you big boat Marbleheaders find that the opposite works for
    you?                

re .5:

The added incentive may be to find another boat and skipper.

:-)

    Re -.1 Probably true.
    
    Re -.2 I can't imagine how, in short seas you avoid pounding using
    this method.  By sailing higher after coming to the crest that puts
    the boat more nearly perpendicular to the wave direction with less
    of a chance to "slide down" the back face of the wave.  In fact,
    we find that the hardest thing is to keep a rythm that lets the
    driver fall off on every wave.  Every now and then he'll miss and
    the boat falls off the wave with a pound that slows us measurably.
    Does this not happen in the kind of boat you sail?
    
    Dave

    
    I've found .6 only works when the waves are long and smooth, both
    front and back.  Heading up on the backside of large square waves
    puts too much air under the keel for my boat's long term health.
    If the backside of a wave turns out to be smoother than expected,
    I'll try to get a bit of distance to weather before heading up the
    face of the next one.
    
    In fact, when the waves are long and smooth my inclination is to
    let the boat find the best path.  Sometimes this results in an up
    the frontside and down the backside motion and sometimes in just
    the opposite.  Whatever feels good on the fingertips of the helsmperson
    usually works.  
    
    - gene

    The process of developing feel begins by making correlations between 
    the pressures exerted through the helm and the corresponding action 
    of the boat.  In the beginning, the helmsman is a passive observer.
    Yes, he/she steers the boat in a specific direction, but that steering
    is largely mechanical -- unrelated to the changing pressures
    transmitted by the boat through the helm.
    
    With time, you will percieve correlations between wind variations
    and pressure through the helm.  For instance, you'll notice how
    a sudden gust of wind adds weather helm (in most cases).  As your
    perception evolves, you will feel the difference between 1 knot
    and 5 knots more breeze, and the entire spectrum above,
    below, and in between.  As you make correlations, you can begin to 
    respond to the helm based on feeling.  When you've got the 
    feeling right, you can steer a straight course in variable winds
    -- on a flat sea.  
    
    Learning the feel of the sea requires a similar process of making 
    correlations between what happens when a boat enters and/or exits 
    a given wave, and the pressures transmitted back to you.  The spectrum 
    here is the variety of waves you encounter.  Start by fighting
    the waves to steer a straight course, then try letting the boat
    follow its natural tendencies.  Note the difference in the boat's
    motion as well as the feel in the helm.  The optimum response to
    a wave generally lies between these extremes.
    
    The final stage in developing feel is layering these two
    fundemental types of feedback together -- for each point of
    sail.  It takes years to do this, but once you've done it 
    with one boat, it will be easier to do so with others.
    
    Happy sailing (I can't wait!)
    ;)

    Rep to Gene, Pual, and Dave on exiting waves
    
    In note 1035.30, I desribed a techniqe that works
    extremely well for exiting steep waves -- pumping the
    helm to induce a rotational force to windward.  In that
    note, I failed to mention that I do not pump the helm
    until after the bow is decending -- when depends 
    on how fast she's dropping.  Because the wave is under 
    the stern, boyancy aft is increased and somwhat leveraged 
    to the lee side.  Consequently, I think the pump channels 
    the momentum of the bow falling directly into the 
    leveraged boyancy aft and the two cancel each other out.  
    The hobby-horse motion is completely damped out and the 
    boat settles square in the trough as the wave clears the stern.
        
    If you've never done this, give it a try.  I think you'll 
    be surprised.  As I mentioned in 1035.30, this technique
    can't be used repeatedly.  Although you loose little speed,
    the boat needs to re-establish its rythm.  Fortunately, 
    most waves can be dealt with more conventionally, storing
    plenty of rythm for the periodic rogue.

Several people have mentioned the need to head-off and slide down the 
backside of waves to avoid crashing. For big monster square waves, I
totally agree. I also agree that you must be flexible; adapt to the
wave size, shape, length, direction and your boats length, displacement,
and response. But for friendlier waves, I find that heading off
on the way up the wave keeps my boat moving faster because the
slope is shallower. I maintain this angle going over the crest to prevent a
crash, then as the crest moves aft and the boat accelerates downward,
I use the speed to windward by heading up. This carved turn usually takes place
in the last half of the wave's backside and is carried through the  trough. 

I think that most methods will depend largely on the boat itself. The
J-24 I sail is very light and quick. I think of it as a big dingy. I
was surprised by how similar the boat feels to my old Snipe. What
works well for this boat may not make sense for another.

This  reminds me of something I heard about Dennis Conner as he 
prepared for the Cup in Freementle. Since his origins were as a light air
sailor, one of his challenges was to master the timing needed
to tack properly in those huge waves. 
Not too fast, not too slow, yeah that's the way to do it. ;)  

-Paul